The league office wants to send active players to the flag-football competition in the 2028 Olympics. The owners, if focused on the interests of their teams, should not want to do it.
The question is whether the interests of the whole will overcome the interests of the individual. And that comes down to whether the Commissioner can persuade at least 24 owners to set aside their short-term best interests for the long-term interests of the game.
We laid out the issue [last month](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/league-office-owners-at-odds-over-player-participation-in-olympic-flag-football). Each and every contract gives the team the ability to refuse to allow players to participate in other forms of organized football. The goal is to ensure that the players are fully healthy when the time comes to risk inevitable injury while playing and practicing tackle football.
That’s why this week’s resolution limits participation to [one player per team](https://media.nfl.com/content/dam/communications/football-communications/2025/news/Olympic%20Resolution.pdf). No owner will risk losing more than one player for an extended period of time, if a serious injury happens.
When it’s time to gather in Minneapolis this week, will that be enough? Some owners might propose having the ability to protect one or two players (or more) from being eligible to play Olympic flag football. While that might create a morale issue if, for example, Patrick Mahomes really wants to chase a gold medal and the Chiefs won’t let him, certain investments are too significant to put at risk.
Remember, it takes only 25 percent of the owners to kill any proposal. If nine of them lock arms and hold together, they can dictate terms.
We’ll find out in the coming days whether a large enough block of owners will take a stand, or whether they’ll all roll over to a league office that believes active-player participation in the Olympics will be good for flag football — which in turn will be good for the NFL’s long-term plan for world domination and the transformation of a billion-dollar business into a trillion-dollar operation.
In the end, that could be the key to getting to 24 votes. Persuade them to set aside the vanity that comes from having a good team in 2028, and get them to focus on their greed.